2014-2018
The overall purpose of this project was to inform the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) on its efforts to improve services for victims of human trafficking.
In 2014, ACF’s Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) awarded three grants to carry out demonstration projects to provide coordinated case management and comprehensive direct victim assistance to domestic victims of severe forms of human trafficking. In 2015, FYSB awarded three additional demonstration project grants. The intent of the grant program was to improve organizational and community capacity to deliver trauma-informed, culturally relevant services for domestic victims of human trafficking. The grantees were expected to build and sustain coordinated systems of agency services and partnerships with allied professionals in community-based organizations, such as runaway and homeless youth, domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking victim services programs.
Each grantee was expected to conduct a community-specific assessment related to victim service needs, gaps, and referral options, and an organizational capacity assessment to determine what resources, training, technical assistance, and partnerships are needed to meet the needs of domestic human trafficking victims in their communities. To meet the needs identified, grantees were expected to expand their partnerships with relevant organizations and agencies, and they will expand their existing case management services to include all aspects of a fully comprehensive victim assistance model. The demonstration projects were implemented in Salt Lake City; New York City; the metropolitan areas of Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Multnomah County (Portland), Oregon; six counties in North Dakota as well as Clay County, Minnesota; and Yellowstone County (Billings), Montana.
Working closely with FYSB, OPRE oversaw a cross-site process evaluation of these new demonstration projects. Key questions of interest were related to the use of the community needs assessment, the necessary conditions for partnership expansion, factors associated with the provision and receipt of comprehensive victim-centered services, survivors’ experiences with the program and their short-term outcomes, and the costs of program components. Additional project activities included working with grantees to improve performance measurement and informing ACF’s decisions regarding future evaluation activities.
This work was conducted through a contract to RTI International.
The point of contact is Mary Mueggenborg.